Family Home Videos

I'm labeling the videos by size. The
big
ones are very large, about 6 MB a minute, and the quality is excellent if you
can download them or stream fast them enough. The quality is such that you can
make them full-screen size. And that's only the medium quality offered by the
tool. Think how big the files would be if they were done in Best mode.

The
medium
ones are usually from the camcorder and are mpg files. The quality isn't bad if
you don't blow them up too big.

The
small
ones, which I'm going to be posting with the big ones from now on, should be
able to be streamed even over a modem and definitely can be downloaded in short
order (relatively speaking) They are a compromise all the way around.

Now, Fort Collins, Colorado

These videos were shot with my Sony camcorder in mpeg mode to a memory stick.
Make sure to not blow these up too big. I think the original resolutions is
320x240.

Marty's Claymation Movies

Marty and his friend Bennett made this movie when Marty was 10 and Bennett was
12. Marty found that the video camera could shoot .1 second frames or something
and proceeded to make several of these. This is the one that is close at hand,
from near the end of 1994 when Marty was almost 11 (bd 01/28/1984).

1993

Cayman Islands, January 1993

Here is a video clip from our Cayman Island trip of 1993. United had a deal
of letting frequent flier miles be used to go to Cayman at the same rate as
domestic travel. The airfare was free, as I had been doing a LOT of travel.

This clip is Marty's birthday (1/28/93) and our last full day at Cayman.
I'll apologize in advance for the singing.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Deschene in Champaign, IL

This seems to be a visit by Mary and Marty only. I stayed with my mom in
Springfield and Mary and Marty went to Champaign to be with her family. This is
a long one. Look for Steve dancing the funky chicken.

Tying Knots 1993

Mary Birthday - December 5, 1993

1992

These three videos segments were all taken at a traditional Thanksgiving
get-together at M+M's house, this time in 1992. Mary is doing most of the
filming, I show up bearded and hairy, on the phone. Marty is playing cards with
a couple of nice women.

1991

Summer-Fall 1991

There are two versions of the video, the
big
and the
small
versions. The video starts out at the "Rabbit campground" in Caldwell, ID. When
we visited it was home to several hundred domestic-type rabbits.

We move on to Portland, Oregon and the home of Pat DesChenes, Mary's sister, a
veterinarian extraordinaire. Watch the casual way she handles her cats and her
straight face at the end. I told Pat that I'd send this to her. This is 90% of
all that was filmed.

There is a short segment at the Aurora Bridge Troll sculpture in Seattle
followed by a visit to Mount Rainer National Park is the subject of the next
short section.

We head east to see Mammoth Hot Springs and other thermal features of
Yellowstone National Park and finish with a tiny segment of Marty's 8th
birthday, January 28th 1992, ends the video. What a deal! All in nine short
minutes.

The next clip is from the same trip and is
available in both
big
and
small
versions with the same content. It was filmed on this same trip and is about 13
minutes long. The first short scene was filmed at home by Mary and features
Marty on the Slip'n'Slide. The rest of the clip was taken at Grandma and Pop
Sokolis's and my mom's house. Pop shows us his "Mister Wilson" green pepper,
plays the organ and plays Technics with Marty. I filmed most of this.

Apple Tree 1990

Modal Improvisation 1990

Here is a (very) short (I promise ;-) ) section of the kind of stuff that I have
done for the last fifteen years or so. It's improvisation using the musical
structure of Gregorian Chant (the
Modes). This is the stuff that (almost) literally drove my family
crazy. I remember a quote by Ian Anderson
saying something like 'people only have a few tunes built into them' and they
go over and over them. (My ex certainly believed that about Frank Zappa. -
Hey!) My family learned the edge of my musical horizon. The Universe, in
contrast, found it extremely satisfying.

Landscape Tour 1990

Mary gives us a tour of the backyard freshly planted. This is an excerpt. I'll
make a video of the pussy willow and dogwood as they are today, soon, and also
post the pictures of the resulting destruction.

The Grand Kahuna 1990-1993

1989

Fun at Monica and Mark Hughes House

This video is the earliest extant of my old friends Monica and Mark. I've
known Monica since college when we lived in the same big house with six other
people.

This video is was taken soon after the birth of their second child, Elliott
(Tote), in 1989. My ex, Mary appears, backlit, and my son Marty shows up at the
end with a pull toy. M+M's older son, Duncan is shown too, with me interacting
with him.